Bank Fishing Haulover Canal

Finally got a chance to take Elmo and Odie for a scouting trip around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to check out the fishing.

We hit north Shiloh Road, the SWEG boat launch, Patillo Creek, and ended up checking out the bank fishing at Haulover Canal.

I tried fishing a paddletail bait and topwater Chug Bug in several areas but only got a couple of followups with no strikes.

When we hit Haulover Canal, I stopped to talk to several bank fishermen to see what they were catching and what baits of choice were being used.

Jack Sexton and his grandfather had just started fishing on the north side of the canal when I pulled up and asked how they were doing.

Jack was kind enough to text me several pictures of their recent catches this past week, some of which I am sharing with you below.

Jack told me they were fishing with shrimp and pieces of blue crab and caught all of the fish in the pics using those baits.

The huge black drum being held up by the two fishermen below was caught in Edgewater this past Sunday evening using shrimp for bait. 

 
He said his buddy sent him the pic of the big drum that weighed in at 75 pounds.

Not very good eating, but one hell of a battle.

I only received about half of the pice he texted me but it was obvious that Jack and Jack Sr. knows how to fish Haulover.

As I was leaving the canal, I stopped to talk to a couple other fishermen who had caught a drum that looked to be around 9 pounds.  Good eating size.

The fisherman said he caught the drum on a piece of shrimp but that he was also using crab for bait.

I planned on making a few more stops but decided to head for home and get some dinner instead.

I didn't come prepared to dunk baits and with Elmo and Odie along, it would have been tough fishing.

I may hit the canal tomorrow.

Till next time, Tight Lines and Bent Rods.

BioLab Road Redfish

Biolab Road is usually a great area to wade or bank fish during the early spring as several of my readers can attest.

Javier Cuazo sent me this pic of a nice 23" slot redfish that he caught last week using fresh frozen shrimp for bait.   Nice dinner.

Several readers emailed me about their catches along BioLab Road but for some reason neglected to send me their pics.

I've been out of town in Mobile but hope to wet a line sometime next week along that section.

I'm fond of top water baits and this time of the year they are particularly effective on big sea trout on the southern flats around Wale Tail.

A lot of guys go crabbing in the area but for some reason I never see a lot of anglers wading the flats.

Maybe I'm not hitting it at the right time.

Cudos to Javier and Tight Lines to your all.

Walking The Pocket

When I took Elmo and Odie for a ride on Wednesday afternoon, I spent a little time fishing at the entrance to Peacocks Pocket Road but walking the Pocket was impossible with them along, so I decided to put it off until this afternoon.

When I finally decided to head out, it was around 3:30p.m. and the air temperature was a balmy 73 degrees.

There were strong wind gusts out of the northeast and even the wind surfers were putting their gear up.  When I finally got to the barricade at Peacocks Pocket,  I was almost sorry I decided to go fishing.   The wind chill made the temperature feel like 60 degrees, and it probably was.
 
I didn't bring along a backpack, so I hooked a small box of replacement lures to my belt hook, grabbed a rod with a Chug Bug and a second with a gold Johnson's Sprite spoon, and started walking the Pocket.

I started fishing with the gold Spoon mainly because it was easier to handle in the wind, as I cast into several areas to find fish.

The fishing along the road was tough to impossible in most areas.  The heavy growth along the side of the road was high making casting extremely limited. 

 Even then if you did hook up with a fish, landing it was almost impossible unless you had a lot of luck on your side.

The water in the marsh canal was low and the shallow ponds that used to be there, were not.   But despite the conditions, I still managed to hook up with three slot size redfish in the 20 to 22 inch range, and land two of them.

 

I also missed hookups with at least four other fish that were probably reds.

I was the only person fishing the area and it was obvious that nobody had been there in quite some time.

The grass was high, there were no human footprints anywhere, and the fish were hitting the Johnson Sprite spoon like they never saw one before.   It was almost like fishing a pristine wilderness area, but without the wilderness.

I walked a few miles up the road casting where I could without getting snagged and took some pics of several areas that because of erosion, made the road impassable to vehicle traffic.

I hope that management will eventually repair the roads, but I'm skeptical at this point.

Anyway, I jumped a 10 foot gator that was sunning itself along the bank but as I reached for my cell phone to take a pic, he quickly disappeared into the canal.

When the wind picked up and it started getting colder, I decided to turn around and head back to the truck.  It was close to 6:00 p.m. when I got to the truck and stowed my gear, and I felt like it was much colder than the low 60s.

As I headed out of the refuge, I took a couple of pics of the beautiful sunset.  I'll never get tired of our sunsets.

Till next time, Tight Lines and bent rods.